Yesterday I spent the day working in Mexico City (a long day, given the 2.5 hr bus ride to/from Puebla). Back in Puebla, tired, I take a taxi from the bus station to my apartment. The cab driver tells me he used to work in Tijuana and we mutually lament how difficult the crossing has become between the two countries. (I remember fondly as a kid that we would go as a family to Ensenada to eat lobster and fresh tortillas and return the same day, no problem, no line, no wait, no big deal.) But then, the taxi driver says “The border should be moved all the way down to Guatemala” and I gasp, silently. So it’s not OK for the U.S. to exclude Mexicans, but it is somehow OK for both Mexico and the U.S. to exclude Central Americans?! I say, “I think there should be no borders, and people should move as freely as capital.” He counters: “It’s that we Mexicans are culturally distinct, and Central Americans are different, they diminish our culture.” Sound familiar? food for thought as we consider what a truly humane transnational community might look like…